Scotland: GPs to work ?beyond duty call??BMA

[Shiloh]

Source: http://www.thecourier.co.uk/output/2009/06/16/newsstory13306171t0.asp

GPs to work ?beyond duty call??BMA

By Alan Richardson

SCOTLAND?S GPs are expected to work ?beyond the call of duty? through any swine flu pandemic, it was confirmed yesterday.

Deputy chairman of the British Medical Association GPs Committee Dr Andrew Buist said reports to the contrary, which suggested insufficient insurance could lead to them closing surgeries, were ?misleading.?

He was answering a suggestion that practices could refuse to see patients in case doctors were later sued for failing to respond to their conditions appropriately.

Hospital doctors are covered by NHS indemnity but self-employed GPs organise their own private insurance, under which swine flu may not be covered.

Should the pandemic result in wards being swamped by swine flu sufferers, people with other conditions, who would normally be sent to hospital, would have to stay elsewhere.

Dr Buist said, ?The reason this has been raised is with a bad pandemic, for example the one we had in 1919 when thousands were dying, it was not possible to manage people in the normal way.

?GPs would be having to manage them in a different way, ie, at home rather than in hospitals, which would be full.

?Guidelines will be put to GPs in such a scenario and our negotiators are saying to the government if we are having to work in such a way, would it be possible to have some additional indemnity.

?The government has so far been unwilling to agree to that.?

Concern was also raised about locum GPs?who will be relied upon much more?not being protected by death-in service cover.

But Dr Buist stressed this would not mean GPs abandoning their posts but that the opposite is more likely to be true.

He added, ?There are a couple of things the government could do to make it easier for people to have the confidence to say they will get stuck in and not worry about their family being left without the main breadwinner if things do go wrong.?

Dr Dean Marshall, a BMA lead negotiator on flu planning, said, ?Doctors will be putting their lives on the line and it is only right they can feel assured they are properly covered if anything goes wrong.

?We don?t want to be going into it with GPs feeling unsure where they stand.?

 

[The Mountains Voice]

Re: Scotland: GPs to work ?beyond duty call??BMA

?The government has so far been unwilling to agree to that.?

Concern was also raised about locum GPs?who will be relied upon much more?not being protected by death-in service cover.

But Dr Buist stressed this would not mean GPs abandoning their posts but that the opposite is more likely to be true.

He added, ?There are a couple of things the government could do to make it easier for people to have the confidence to say they will get stuck in and not worry about their family being left without the main breadwinner if things do go wrong.?

In today's world, "Could Do" & "Will Do" is a big divide. I do think this whole topic is going to become much more forefront in the near future. Governments need to do something to alleviate the fears a parent / husband / wife might have about leaving their families financially unprotected. It is a legitimate concern considering the risk, and level of duty - which ultimately could be offering the ultimate sacrifice - one's own life.

I expect many doctors & nurses & especially support staff, will go absent in serious conditions. Let us not judge them harshly - but rather let us make efforts individually to prepare for such occurences.

 

[kiwibird]

Re: Scotland: GPs to work ?beyond duty call??BMA

Swine flu fear GPs ?to strike?

Monday, June 15, 2009

Fears over GP 'strike'

Doctors could refuse to work if swine flu spreads throughout Britain because they fear they may not be insured if they put their lives at risk.

Some GPs say they will try to avoid dealing directly with patients so they do not catch the virus, according to the British Medical Association.
'We don't want to be going into it with GPs feeling unsure where they stand. Doctors are only human and some will not want to go on the front line,' said Dr Dean Marshall, one of the BMA's flu planning negotiators.






<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript"> if (document.getElementById("articleTags") != null) { document.getElementById("related").className="related_container_left"; document.getElementById("relatedHeader").className="related_header"; } </script> Patients' groups accused doctors of threatening to duck their duty and criticised the timing of the announcement ? the day after the death of the first Briton from swine flu.
It was announced that the premature baby born to the first victim, Scottish mother-of-three Jacqui Fleming, 38, had also died.
The number of cases in Britain now stands at 1,320 but experts fear infections will soar in the autumn, especially in September when children to school after the summer holidays.
However, some GPs are worried about the depth of their death-in-service insurance cover, the BMA says.
Dr Marshall said: 'A locum could die at the weekend and their family might not get a payout. That is not fair and could make some think twice about helping out.
'Doctors will be putting their lives on the line and it is only right they can feel assured they are properly covered if anything goes wrong.'
GPs also want guarantees that their indemnity insurance against being sued by patients will be adequate in the event of a pademic.
If they do decide to refuse to work, there are fears that the swine flu virus will spread faster as patients face delays in getting treatment.
But Dr Michael Summers, vice-chairman of the Patients' Association, said: 'I'm very surprised they would say it now when they pandemic level has been raised as it could result in extra panic, which is something we've been trying to avoid.'
Meanwhile, Ms Fleming's baby, Jack, who was born 11 weeks prem*ature while his mother was suffering from the infection, died at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley.
He did not have swine flu. Scottish health secretary Nicola Sturgeon said his death so soon after his mother's was an 'unimaginably painful loss'
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article..._strike%92&in_article_id=685599&in_page_id=34

 

[kiwibird]

Re: Scotland: GPs to work ?beyond duty call??BMA

From a blog:
http://nhsblogdoc.blogspot.com/2009/06/swine-flu-news-update-4-gps-will-not-be.html

Swine flu news : update (4) "GPs will NOT be going on strike"

posted by Dr John Crippen at 7:33 AM


An odd report from the BBC today. Naturally, it is provocative. No surprise there. Probably, it is rubbish. Not much surprise there. The report is based upon some odd remarks, probably taken out of context, attributed to Dr Dean Marshall. Never heard of him but he is said to be

“one of the BMA's lead negotiators on flu planning, said of the pandemic”

BBC​

Dr Marshall seems to have confused two issues. GPs “death in service benefit” and GPs medical insurance. Or, at least, this badly written and confusing BBC report portrays him as being confused. The report starts provocatively:

Some GPs may refuse to work if the swine flu pandemic spreads throughout the UK, union leaders have warned.
​

That, if I may use a technical term, is b****cks. I can assure you that all GPs will continue to work as normal. If there is a “real” epidemic (not this definitional pandemic nonesense that is going on at the moment) we are all at risk of catching flu and, frankly, you are just as likely to catch it in Tesco or on a train as you are sitting in a health centre. GPs will carry on. If thousands and thousands of our patients catch flu, we will dole out the Tamiflu which you and the government can pretend will help, and we will do our best to treat any secondary infections.

GPs as a whole are pretty relaxed about “catching things from patients”. Most of us think we are immune to all known disease (we are not) but, in our rational moments, we know that any small increased risk of infection is part of the deal. How many surgeons have stopped operating because of the risk of catching HIV infection?

As regards Dr Marshall’s worries about medico-legal cover, well, I do not understand it. All GPs are members of the MPS or some such organisation, and the cover we get from these organisations is far superior to that provided by so called “crown immunity” that some hospital doctors foolishly rely on.

If the quote attribute to Dean Marshal is correct then he is an ignorant barrack room lawyer. He allegedly says:

GPs, because they are effectively self-employed, have their own insurance but this may not cover them during a serious flu outbreak.

Dr Marshall said: "The problem is that the current cover expects GPs to act in a certain way.

"For example, if someone has a heart attack we should send them to hospital, but during the pandemic hospitals could be full and this may not be possible.

"Our fear is that later on people may sue us."

BBC​

Rubbish. If I see a patient with a heart attack, I shall send him into hospital. If the hospital is full, and unable to admit him, that is not my fault. I shall do my best to manage him at home, as GPs did fifty years ago. Far from ideal management in modern times, but that does not make me, or any other GP, liable for anything. One does one’s best in all the circumstances.

Death in service benefit is already covered under NHS pension arrangements. There is, it is true, an issue about a locum sessional GP who contracts flu and dies. His “death in service” benefit is ill defined. Dean Marshall could put some work into that problem.

As to the general issue, however, may I just reassure all that, in the event of a swine flu epidemic, your family doctor will be working as normal and will do his best to provide a good service, however difficult conditions may become. There will be no industrial action, and there will be no strikes.